GOOD Morning Wilton sought out thoughts from some local officials and nonprofit agencies about how dramatic and sometimes confusing cuts and changes being executed at the federal level may be impacting Wilton.
“I’m extremely concerned about the funding cuts that are occurring at the national level,” Wilton Historical Society Director Nick Foster said. “While (WHS) has not had direct funding cut yet, the concern is a domino effect of more competition for the few remaining funding sources.”
Foster also serves as board president for the Connecticut League of Museums, which because of cuts to Connecticut Humanities, will be severely limited in its grant funding for places like the Wilton Historical Society.
“It’s not just direct funding cuts either,” Foster said, citing typical threats to art and culture that arise in tough financial times.
“I’ve spoke to several colleagues throughout Connecticut that have had more than 50% of their budget cut without warning … It’s a scary time for nonprofits for sure,” he said.
“Wilton has lost $100,000 in Title I funding, but for the most part everything else that is happening are going to be those downstream effects, rather than immediate hits for us,” State Sen. Ceci Maher said.
The situation is complicated, she said, and very fluid, with new surprises popping up from the federal administration on a regular basis.
As well as cutting more than 60,000 federal jobs to date — a backpedal from an even higher number of layoffs — initiatives sanctioned by President Donald Trump have slashed a litany of federal programs. Many of these target social service programs, including $2.5 billion cut from Department of Agriculture food grants, a $1-billion cut from the Department of Education that had been allocated for mental health services, and another Education cut of $1 billion that includes state funding for preschool and adult education programs.
According to Maher, 236 Wilton residents benefit from SNAP, the Dept. of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with school meal assistance also impacted in that category.
“There’s talk of Meals on Wheels being eliminated,” she said.
Trump’s budget proposal for Fiscal 2026 includes around $163 billion in cuts to non-defense areas, including cutting more than half of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. Other proposals include cutting funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AmeriCorps and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Separate of any connection to residents throughout the state who will more directly suffer from these cuts, Maher touched on several items of note that will impact the state government and thus trickle down to Wilton’s state funding and grants.
“The Connecticut Department of Public Health did release a comprehensive report about all this,” she said. “I think the biggest thing is that it’s $150 million in federal funding to Connecticut, so that’s where the public health issues are going to be affected. But also it’s going to be in mental health and addiction services.”
Cuts in scientific and medical research will have a range of effects, both short- and long-term, including how equipped the state may be for future health crises both in terms of understanding and emergency personnel.
It’s still unclear whether the federal government will implement enormous $880 billion cuts to Medicaid throughout the next decade, as has been proposed. While Wilton may not be impacted as directly as some municipalities, Maher said the toll on lives in Connecticut will be substantial.
“Medicaid pays for 41% of births in Connecticut and 38% of all Connecticut children receive some sort of mental or physical help through Husky … Ultimately the impact is just going to be massive,” she said.
Maher made note of $1.1 billion dollars in state funding that historically comes from the U.S. Dept. of Education.
$1.8 million of that goes to Wilton,” she said. “That’s a significant amount of money if it disappears.”
Superintendent Kevin Smith shared a short wait-and-see thought on the matter.
“There is not much to report at the moment,” he said. “We have not, as of yet, experienced a direct impact as a result of federal cuts. We continue to watch carefully.”
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which earlier this year Trump suggested possibly abolishing, is supposedly sending funds to Wilton in relation to the August flooding, but it’s not entirely clear if those funds are forthcoming.
“I am particularly concerned with FEMA reimbursements for the August 2024, flood damage of Wilton property,” First Selectman Toni Boucher said, noting that no other effects have been felt by her office at this time.
Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker said that, at this point, numbers regarding the reimbursement are complicated.
“As of today’s date,” he said on Thursday, May 1, “our DPW (Department of Public Works) is still working with a FEMA project manager to complete and submit a variety of FEMA claim forms. This is work still in progress.”
Frank Smeriglio, Wilton’s DPW director, did not respond to an email asking for his comments and thoughts.
“There’s no knowing, if something like that should happen again, god forbid, we would be in the same situation with no FEMA funding coming through,” Maher said of last year’s floods.
She noted a $1.1-million cut to the Connecticut State Library, which means some of the resources it offers Wilton and other municipal libraries will be lost or impeded.
Wilton Library Executive Director Caroline Mandler had little to say.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and do not have a comment at this time,” she said.
Maher, however, had strong opinions about, not only the content and extent of the cuts, but the cavalier approach behind them.
“I think at the basis of all of this is an enormous sense of cruelty,” she said, pointing out that children, seniors and entire families, in some cases, literally need federal assistance to survive.
“It’s pretty upsetting on a daily basis thinking about who is being harmed here,” she said.”My thoughts are that there is a great deal of talk about saving money, but the way this has been gone about has been without thought.”
“The cost to us in lost efficiency alone is incalculable right now and just from what I’ve read … we are spending more money in paying out people unemployment than we’re saving in some instances,” she said.
Representatives from some local nonprofits, including the Riverbrook Regional YMCA and Trackside Center for Teens, commented that they were not going to be impacted by cuts because they don’t receive federal money.
“We do not expect to experience any negative effects on our organization at this time,” Trackside Executive Director Lori Fields said.
“Certainly in an unpredictable climate, where many around us are experiencing hardship and loss … we’re lucky to live in a community that values taking great care of one another,” she said, noting they hoped to do their part to help.
Maher strongly believes the current situation transcends political party lines.
“I do believe that everyone, no matter what party you’re in, should be engaged,” she said, and should reach out to their legislators. “Let them know that this is not okay, this dismantling of the safety net of society.”
“Over time the impact of these cuts will be known … When they happen and when they all come to fruition, we will see a radically changed nation — a nation that no longer cares about the poor and the underserved, and the youth and the elderly,” she said.
“And that’s horrifying to me.”
Even though things are uncertain, this is information that is not available elsewhere for our town. Thank you, GMW.
Yes, Senator Ceci Maher’s uptake on this debacle is spot on. The administration’s actions under the name of ‘improving efficiency and fraud reduction’ are cruel and unprofessional. Anyone who knows anything about evaluating program effectiveness knows this surely was not the way to go about ‘right sizing’ any organization; public or private.